I was driving a few months ago when my oil pressure guage dropped to 0, I drove home, put a new sender in and still nothing. So I changed to a heavier weight oil and parked it using it only when I needed it until I could figure out the problem. Eventually got tired of it being dead in the driveway and pulled it in the shop to rebuild the motor. Tore it down last night and found the top bolt on the oil pump was only finger tight, thought maybe that was the cause. Got the pan off and saw that the pickup was only held on by 1 bolt and thought that could contribute. But, when I got into the top end and saw what was going on there I was glad I had a new head and cam ready for the rebuild. It looked pretty at first glance (10k on the previous owners rebuild):





Then we noticed the first and second cam retainers were both broken, heres the second and the cam:









So only the #3 cap was holding the cam down, 1 and 2 were both snapped. I'm sure it's been like that since I bought it because it's always have very loud valve chatter. The adjusting screws were all bottomed out and lash was still around 1/8th of an inch too much lol. So how would this have happened so I don't end up ruining the new 20r head I bought for it?

 

My guess is whoever that jackwagon was that rebuilt that engine, had no clue what he was doing. Better check why that oil pickup only had 1 bolt holding it. I'd be willing to bet the thread holes are striped.

Same thing with the top oil pump bolt. Makes me wonder if he tightend that to tight as well and stripped it. Assuming it's the one that goes through the cover. The one that's not supposed to protrude though it. To long and it hits the chain tensioner.

Maybe the cam retainers were broke because the knucklehead didn't have the retainers straight when he torqued them down. May or may not have noticed he cracked the retainers. But it if there is no bolts in the oil pan from the pickup tube, that wasn't a mistake. He knew there was only one bolt.

 

Over torqued cam caps...